Spice profits uplift community in Nepal

A
group member beside a spice mill paid for by
TeleFood (FAO/22522/G.Diana)

Women
weigh and bag spices (FAO/22559/G.
Diana)

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The farm families of Bhaktapur district in Nepal's
Kathmandu Valley know they have something special in their
traditional spice crop. Centuries ago the spices were so
highly prized by Nepal's northern neighbour that the valley
was known as the "Chilli Garden of Tibet". But the farmers
also know that at harvest time, with 1 000 tonnes of fresh
chilli, garlic, ginger and turmeric on their hands, they are
only offered low prices by outside mills, which dry, grind
and sell the spices -- and keep the profit.

The situation started to improve when FAO's
TeleFood Fund provided US$9 500 to a Bhaktapur women's
group to build a small processing plant in the heart of the
spice-growing area. TeleFood raises awareness worldwide
about hunger, as well as collecting donations from the
public for small projects that help the poor grow or buy
enough food for a healthy life.

The Creative Women's Group, composed of 52 women, proudly
welcomes a visitor to the plant, located down a dirt track
15 kilometres from Kathmandu. Inside, the smell of ground
spices is so pungent that the women employed to weigh and
bag the spices wear gauze masks across their noses and
mouths to protect their lungs from irritation. TeleFood paid
for the building, dryers, mills, scales and heat sealers for
packaging. The Nepalese government provided training and
guidance.

"All the profit we make is used to run and expand the
business," says Khettri Chettri Gauri, the group's
chairperson. "We also give loans from our 15 000-rupee
operating fund to members who have family emergencies. The
plant creates work for some of our members as well."

Group members all live within walking distance of the
plant, mostly on small farms that grow rice, wheat, maize
and spices. Ten of the members have no land. The project
buys spices from an additional 300 farm households.

Although the project targets district women, Mrs Gauri is
quick to point out that the whole community supports it.
"Both men and women are involved," she says. "My husband is
an agricultural technical assistant, he gave me the idea for
this. Husbands and brothers help in all ways. For example,
they showed us how to do the accounts."

The women's group has a market of over 2 million people
on its doorstep, and a product that is used daily in the
national dish of rice and curried vegetables. Nevertheless,
they find it difficult to compete with cheap, mass-produced
spices, both local and imported from India.

"The women are having some trouble in selling," says Huma
Kumari Bokkhim, a food technologist with the Ministry of
Agriculture and Cooperatives. "They have to convince
shopkeepers to stock their product and then pick up the
money later. What the group must do now is develop the
market for premium quality spices, which would cost slightly
more, but would appeal to consumers who appreciate the
superior taste of the spices from this district."

Lakshman Gautam, a senior programme officer at the FAO
office in Nepal, elaborates on the marketing issue, crucial
if the plant is to survive and expand to process more and
more of the local farmers' harvest and start paying
dividends to the women's group.

"The women are learning about business," Mr Gautam says.
"They thought that the middlemen's profit should go to them.
They had to learn how the system works and how they can
profit from it." The government is also advising them on how
to create a brand for their spices, so they will become a
household name. "There are many discriminating buyers here
and the supermarkets are slowly starting to stock the
spices," he adds.

One change TeleFood has already brought to the area is a
belief in collective action. The project has acted as a
catalyst for 35 to 40 new agricultural cooperatives.

"We are the luckiest cooperative in the area, though,
because we have TeleFood support," says Mrs Gauri with a
smile.